Cross Timbers and Prairies

The Cross Timbers and Prairies area in North Central Texas includes the Cross Timbers, Grand Prairie, and North Central Prairies land resource areas. This area represents the southern extension of the Central Lowlands and the western extreme of the Coastal Plains.
The wide variances in geologic formations bring about sharp contrasts in topography, soils, and vegetation. Upland soils of both the East and West Cross Timbers are light, slightly acid loamy sands and sandy loams with yellowish brown to red clayey subsoils. Bottomland soils have small, dark, neutral to calcareous clayey areas, and loamy alluvial soils occur along the minor streams. Upland soils are dark, deep to shallow, and stony calcareous clays with subsoils of lighter, limy earths and limestone fragments. Bottomland soils are reddish brown, loamy to clayey calcareous alluvial. The North Central Prairies are interspersed with rapidly drained sandstone and shaley ridges and hills occupied by scrub live oak, juniper, and mesquite. Uplands are brown, sandy loam to silt loam, slightly acid soils over red to gray, neutral to alkaline clayey subsoils. Bottomland soils are brown to dark gray, loamy and clayey, neutral to calcareous, and alluvial.